I lived in Japan for 10 years and have interivewed 97 of their WWII veterans for their experiences.
I admire the work of Ernie Pyle who wrote about the US soldiers' own experiences from the trenches. With that in mind, I went back to Japan to interview the veteran pilots and learn about what they went through growing up in 1930's Japan, joining the Navy and fighting in the Pacific War.
I have also visited many of the WWII battle sites that appear in the book, "The Last Zero Fighter".